01
Familiar by design
Spreads and parent pages, frames and threaded stories, the Control panel, swatches, text wrap — the InDesign layout, tools, panels and shortcuts, rebuilt clean-room in Rust.
01 / DesignCraft Page layout · Early alpha
01 DesignCraft
L’application de mise en page que vous savez déjà utiliser.
Spreads and parent pages, threaded text frames, paragraph and character styles, text wrap and a real paragraph composer — a free, open-source InDesign alternative written entirely in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly. It imports and writes IDML, exports PDF/X and EPUB, needs no account, never uploads your documents, and works offline. Open the DesignCraft editor — free and open source.
Runs in your browser — free and open source
02 / Fonctionnalités
Ce qu’il contient.
02
Beautiful type
A Knuth–Plass paragraph composer, dictionary hyphenation, word/letter/glyph-scaling justification, keeps, optical margin alignment, baseline grid and columns — identical line breaks on screen and in PDF.
03
Open formats
A documented native format, IDML import and export, PNG and PDF proofing, PDF/X-4 and PDF/A-2b export, and EPUB — no subscription, no licence server, no telemetry.
04
Fast by architecture
Multithreaded SIMD rendering, copy-on-write documents with O(1) undo snapshots, and cached composition — a Rust engine, not a port of a desktop app.
05
Agent-native
Every menu item, tool gesture, panel control and dialog is drivable over a JSON control channel — and a hosted MCP server (mcp.artcraftweb.org) lets Claude and other agents drive this very tab: open the editor with ?mcp=<token> and point any MCP client at it.
06
Everywhere
One Rust codebase for desktop and the web; your files stay on your device in the browser build, cached for offline work.
03 / Made for
De la vraie PAO, dans un onglet.
01
Lay out a magazine
Thread body text across columns and pages, wrap it around figures, keep headlines with their leads, and flow it all from one story file.
02
Design documents and reports
Parent pages for running headers and folios, styles for consistency, baseline grid for polish — then export a press-ready PDF/X-4.
03
Build books for EPUB
Bring text in, structure it with styles, and export reflowable EPUB straight from the layout — one tool from manuscript to published.
04 / Fonctionnement
Lay out a document in five steps.
- 01
Open a tab
DesignCraft boots in the browser — no download, no account, no subscription. Start a document or open an IDML file from your device.
- 02
Set up spreads and parent pages
Choose page size, columns and margins; put running headers, folios and grids on parent pages so every page inherits them.
- 03
Place and flow text
Drop in text files, thread frames across columns and pages, and let the paragraph composer set it — hyphenation, justification and keeps all handled.
- 04
Style once, apply everywhere
Paragraph and character styles for consistency, swatches for colour, text wrap around figures, and a baseline grid to snap everything into rhythm.
- 05
Export for press or screen
Render a press-ready PDF/X-4 or PDF/A-2b, a reflowable EPUB, or exchange the whole layout as IDML — all written by the engine’s own code.
05 / Fichiers
Formats that round-trip.
Layouts move through the open interchange formats — never locked in. Import what you have, export where it needs to go.
| Format | Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IDML | import + export | the open interchange format InDesign itself uses — layouts round-trip, not .indd |
| PDF / PDF-compatible .ai | import | placed as graphics, with transparency |
| PDF/X-4, PDF/A-2b | export | press-ready and archival PDF, written by the engine’s own writer |
| EPUB | export | reflowable books from the same layout |
| PNG, SVG, EPS | import | graphics placed into frames |
| Native format | import + export | documented, plain JSON — diffable and future-proof |
06 / Typographie
Type set the way typesetters mean it.
Most tools break lines one line at a time. DesignCraft’s Knuth–Plass composer optimizes the whole paragraph — hyphenation from public dictionaries and trained patterns, justification tuned by word, letter and glyph scaling, keeps that hold headings to their following line, optical margin alignment that hangs punctuation into the margin, and a baseline grid columns snap to.
07 / Captures
Captured in DesignCraft.
08 / Obtenir DesignCraft
Rien à installer.
Open a tab
The full layout engine, compiled to WebAssembly — no download, no installer, no account. It boots like a web page and lays out like a native app.
Lancer l’éditeurFonctionne hors ligne
Install it as an app from your browser and DesignCraft keeps working without a connection — the shell, the engine and your last document are cached on your device.
Vos documents restent les vôtres
Layouts open from and save back to your device as IDML or DesignCraft’s documented native format. Nothing is uploaded — there is no server to upload to.
09 / FAQ
Questions, réponses.
Can AI agents drive the editor?
Yes. Open the editor with ?mcp=<token> and point any MCP client at mcp.artcraftweb.org/mcp?token=<token> — Claude and other agents can then lay out, style and export documents, exactly like a designer.
Is DesignCraft really free?
Yes. DesignCraft is free and open source under MIT OR Apache-2.0 — no subscription, no licence server, no telemetry. The web app needs no account.
Is it good for laying out books?
Yes — threaded stories flow across chapters, EPUB export is built in, and the composer’s keeps and hyphenation hold up over hundreds of pages.
Can I design a magazine spread with wrapped text?
Yes — text wrap around any object, pull quotes with runaround, columns per frame, and parent-page folios; the sample magazine on this page is built exactly that way.
Does it handle fonts and OpenType features?
The type engine lays out with the document’s fonts, honours optical margin alignment and glyph-level adjustments, and renders the same breaks on screen and in the exported PDF.
Can I work offline on a plane?
Yes — install DesignCraft as an app and the engine plus your last document are cached locally; nothing needs the network.
Can it open InDesign files?
It imports and exports IDML, the open interchange format InDesign itself uses; layouts round-trip through IDML rather than the proprietary .indd.
Can it export PDF and EPUB?
Yes — PDF including the PDF/X-4 and PDF/A-2b standards, plus EPUB, and PNG for proofs; all written by DesignCraft’s own Rust code.
Does the layout tool work offline?
Yes. Install DesignCraft as an app from your browser and the shell, the engine and your last document are cached on your device; editing continues without a connection.
How good is the typography?
A Knuth–Plass paragraph composer (plus single-line), dictionary hyphenation, word/letter/glyph-scaling justification, keeps, optical margin alignment, baseline grid and columns — and line breaks are identical on screen and in the exported PDF.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. The editor runs in the tab; documents open from and save back to your device. There is no server to upload to.
10 / La famille
Les apps Craft.
DesignCraft is one of a family of open crafting tools.
Set something beautiful.
Spreads, styles and a real composer — in a tab, for free.
Commencer